I am a leadership advisor to Fortune 500 CEOs and Boards, author of "Hacking Leadership" (Wiley) and "Leadership Matters" (2007), the Chairman at N2Growth, a member of the board of directors at the Gordian Institute and recognized by Thinkers50 as one of the top leadership thinkers globally. I am also a syndicated columnist and contributing editor on topics of leadership, innovation and problem solving. I have been married for nearly 30 years and am a proud father and grandfather.

The Engagement Secret Of Great Leaders

Show me a great leader and I’ll show you a talented storyteller. Leadership and storytelling go hand-in-hand. In fact, leaders who lack the ability to leverage the power and influence of storytelling are missing the very essence of what accounts for compelling leadership to begin with – the story. Give me a few minutes and allow me to share a story with you – it may just change your life.

If you’ve ever been captivated by a skilled orator whose articulation and eloquence have influenced your thinking, you understand the power of the art of story. I refer to story as an art form because it is. Storytelling requires talent and practice, but as with any worthy discipline, the investment yields great benefit. A story is the root level driver behind successfully communicating any message. A subtle side benefit of well crafted stories can be found in their versatility – they can be delivered in person or by proxy, and in visual, textual, or verbal form.

Before the existence of the written word, learning largely took place by passing down stories through the generations. The passing of history has diluted many things, but not the value of story. Today’s technology driven world has only made it easier to amplify story – the potential for a story to “go viral” has never been greater. Here’s the thing – you’ll never know how good your story is if you choose not to share it. Storytelling is the hook that drives engagement, evokes passion, and provides the energy that fuels innovation. Storytelling is an attraction magnet – it’s one thing you definitely want to add to your leadership toolkit.

While an authentic story is much like DNA in that no two stories are exactly the same, it takes more than being unique to be memorable. Stories are the instruments that tug at your emotions, speak to your logic, support your beliefs, and reinforce your positions. Great stories challenge, engage, inform, persuade, entertain, mobilize, convict, and inspire. Smart leaders understand stories highlight learning opportunities and create memorable experiences. Are you consciously and consistently using story to be a more effective leader? Perhaps more importantly, are you scaling storytelling by teaching others how to use story to their advantage? I’m reminded of a Navy recruiting video which posed the question; If someone wrote a story about your life, would anybody read it? This is a powerful question for any of us to ponder, but especially leaders.

There is no denying everybody loves a good story, and there are numerous reasons why. Think about the novels you’ve read, movies you’ve watched, speeches you’ve listened to, ads that have hooked your interest, or virtually any other message delivered by any other medium, and it’s the story that either seals the deal or leaves you feeling cheated. The best part about learning to be a great storyteller is it will afford you the best shot at becoming a story maker. When reflecting on the greatest leaders of our time you’ll quickly see it’s their ability to not just tell the story, but their ability to create engagement, inspiration, and influence through their storytelling which sets them apart from the masses.

As a leader, it’s your ability to tell a a compelling story that sets the tone from the top. Story is the fabric upon which culture is built. It helps you to successfully establish rapport, evangelize a vision, champion a brand, align expectations, build teams, attract talent, assuage concerns, relieve tension, and resolve conflict. A leader’s story needs to engender trust while implanting your brand promise in the minds of your various constituencies in a manner that is memorable, authentic, relevant, and actionable. It’s the leaders story which allows them to share the color of their experience and the context behind their thinking.

Stories are also quite revealing. Carefully listening to a leader’s story will reveal their character or a lack thereof. Disingenuous leaders misuse storytelling in an attempt to shield, buffer, distract, lull, or misdirect. They use story to prop-up their ego, drive their agenda, and to take aim on their adversaries. The storyline propagated by those playing at leadership is all about them. Their stories are laced with “I” and “my” and their primary focus is to shine the spotlight on themselves.

By contrast, the authentic and appropriate use of story has an outward focus, and is laced with “we” and “our” as the main points of emphasis. Great leaders understand a story is most powerful when it offers hope and encouragement, when it’s inspires unification and collaboration, and when it has a humanizing effect. Smart leaders understand storytelling is a highly effective method of creating engagement, opening or extending dialog, and finding common ground. Perhaps the most valuable use of story is to shine the light on others. Leaders who use the power of story to publicly recognize the contributions of others are simply more successful than those who don’t.

So my question is this; why not incorporate storytelling into your leadership repertoire? While leadership is a complex subject to be sure, it all begins with the story – tell it well and succeed; tell it poorly and fail. This is a simple, yet powerful message I encourage you to take to heart. Nobody will tell your story if you don’t first tell it yourself.

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Mike – another great article. If a leader can remember: just as each person in his/her sphere of influence must be treated with dignity and respect, each person’s story is correspondingly sacred. Our ‘stories’ are unique and compelling. So, just as a good leader at the top of an organization knows how to create/refine a corporate ‘Vision’ – the truly gifted leader knows how to cast that Vision into a compelling story – drawing stakeholders together and weaving their collective stories…into it.

Great article. I agree the ability to tell a story is crucial. However, being able to listen first has to be one of the most important qualities of any leader. Ultimately it’s listening that tells the leader what direction the team needs. The same is true when dealing with the customer. The channel needs to be clear for interaction and engagement fueled by understanding. The ultimate relationship is one where parties can come together and seamlessly collaborate with one another — so much so that they can innovate in step as a single unit.

Mike I love it. Since cavemen told stories in grunts and images scratched in stone, humans have been drawn to good storytellers like moths to flame. You can take a bevy of the driest facts imaginable, wrap ‘em in a tale that tickles the heart and emotions and your listeners will remember them far longer than they would have otherwise. All leaders/world-changers packaged their messages in story or parable form…sometimes simply creating the story, other times using their personal struggle (literally, in Hitler’s case) to add punch to their propagated ideology. Words are the most powerful weapon on the planet, and story tellers are the most skilled in wielding them. The recent paradigm shift in marketing from the old “Outbound” model to a newer “Inbound” approach has resulted in a new appreciation for storytellers as marketers. It’s such a big part of adding value to customer experience and creating content that excites/incites a customer to action (assuming you actually have a good product, that is;-). Tell a good story and people will gather around your campfire. Keep telling good stories and you may just find yourself clan leader;-) Great article!

Thank you Mike for your interesting story about stories. I found it very well written, though it could do with some more substance: Could you possibly address more thoroughly what makes a story in your opinion and why you find that stories are so engaging?

Thanks for your question. For brevity purposes, I’ll keep this short without repeating what was put forth in my original piece. In addition to providing for better communication dynamics (context, color and nuance), stories bind and reveal, they inform and educate, the validate or disprove. Stories offer better insight into who a speaker is, what they value, and the depth of their knowledge. Raw information/data while useful to an extent, rarely offer the soft elements (cultural, philosophical, emotional, positional, strategic, etc.) necessary for fully informed discourse leading to sound decisions. Hope this helps Tom.